Asunción, Paraguay, Jun 6, 2006 / 12:00 am (CNA).- In response to the wave of superstition that has resulted from the date 6/6/06, Archbishop Pastor Cuquejo of Asuncion cautioned Catholics not to let themselves be carried away by false beliefs and to remember that Christ is Lord over evil.

“The Christian should free himself from these superstitions, first because they are a waste of time, and second because he has Christ, who is the great Redeemer, the One who is above evil,” the archbishop said. “If you think and believe it will affect you, perhaps it will, but it will be your own fault because of self-influence,” he noted.

The archbishop said in order to understand the symbolism of 666, it is necessary to understand “the Jewish mentality, which holds that the number 7 signifies perfection and contact with God,” and that anything less “was imperfect, and that’s where the number 6 comes in.” He noted that when the author of Revelation identifies the beast with 666, he speaks of it as many or as one “who persecuted the Christians of that time. The beast is often associated with the emperor Nero, and since he was going against God, he was assigned the number 6.” “Thus three sixes would mean the perfection of evil. It is a mere symbol that does not have any magic power or force. By itself the number has no power. The power lies in the evil that man can do,” the archbishop maintained.

He added that 666 is seen by those who are superstitious as an evil number that signifies the work of the devil, the catastrophe that would occur “with the coincidences of these numbers.”

“For example,” Archbishop Cuquejo said, “now they are saying that the sixth day of the sixth month of the year that ends in six will be an ominous day.” He enjoined Catholics “not to be carried away by these coincidences of time. 666 has nothing to do with whatever catastrophes might happen.”

If people think that something is going to happen, they themselves will make it possible through their mental suggestion. “Some will lose good judgment because they are worried, and if they get into a car accident,” he said, “it will be because they were careless, and they will blame the coincidence of numbers.”